Edwina Booth (September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an Americanactress. She is best known for the 1931 film Trader Horn, during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ruined her movie career.

She was on vacation following a 1927 stage appearance when film director E. Mason Hopper saw her and offered her a part in a Marie Prevost picture. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was impressed with her, and cast Booth in supporting roles. Her chance for stardom came when the studio cast her in its new jungle epic Trader Horn opposite Harry Carey. MGM gave the production a fairly large budget, and sent cast and crew on location in East Africa. Up until 1929, the only films shot in Africa were travelogues, but MGM was hoping that the idea of "location shooting" might increase the film's commercial appeal.The crew was inexperienced and ill-equipped for filming in Africa, a problem exacerbated by MGM's last-minute decision to shoot the film with sound.

In addition to coping with the heat and insects, Booth contracted malaria during shooting.Her role in the film as "The White Goddess" required that she be very scantily clad, likely increasing her susceptibility. Production went on for several months (much longer than average production time in those days), and the film wasn't released until 1931. Despite many problems with the film's production,Trader Horn was a success, securing an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Booth, however, fared much worse; it took her six years to fully recover physically. She sued MGM for over a million dollars, claiming she had been provided with inadequate protection and inadequate clothing during the African shoot. She also claimed she had been forced to sunbathe nude for extended periods during filming. The case received a lot of attention in the tabloids and was eventually settled out of court. According to some sources, the terms were not disclosed; however, Brigham Young University archives indicate she settled for $35,000.

Later years

Booth's acting career never recovered from the MGM debacle. Neither MGM nor the other major studios had any intentions of employing her, which created an opportunity for producer Nat Levine of the low-budget Mascot Pictures. Levine saw a chance to capitalize on the success of Trader Horn by reuniting its stars Harry Carey and Edwina Booth for two adventure serials, The Vanishing Legion and The Last of the Mohicans. The films were successful within their limited market, but failed to propel Edwina Booth's movie career forward. By the time MGM reissued Trader Horn in 1938, Edwina Booth had been forgotten by the moviegoing public.

Edwina Booth withdrew completely from the public eye, although she continued to receive fan mail for the rest of her life. She declared that she would be dedicating all of her future leisure and a large proportion of her earnings to the alleviation of human suffering, "My years of illness have not been wasted," she informed the local press. "I have learned to love mankind." She became more active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, frequently attending the Los Angeles California Temple.

Booth was married three times. Anthony Shuck, her first husband, had their marriage annulled soon after her return from Africa. She married her second husband, Urial Leo Higham on November 21, 1951. He died in 1957. Her third husband was Reinold Fehlberg. They were married from 1959 until his death in 1983.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

[born June 8,1940] Is an American singer and actress. The daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra and first wife Nancy Barbato Sinatra. Best know by many from her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made For Walking". Other defining records included, "Sugar Town", the 1967 #1 Hit, "Something Stupid" [duet with her father], the title song from James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, and several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood such as "Jackson". and her cover of "BANG BANG" is an easy win over Cher's Original version.

She began her career as an singer and actress in the early 1960's, but initially achieved success only in japan and Europe. Early 1966 she had a transatlantic #1 Hit with These Boots, which showed her good-natured but sexy style. The song would popularize and made her synonymous with go-go boots forever. The Promo clip [video] featured a big-haired, doubled lashed Sinatra and six young women in tight tops and ultra mini's. The song was written by Lee Hazlewood who would write most of her hits and sang with her on several legendary duets.

1960's In the late 1950s, Sinatra began to study music, dancing, and voice at the University of California in Los Angeles. She dropped out after a year,and made her professional debut in 1960 on her father's television special, The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis, welcoming the return of Elvis Presley home from Europe following his discharge from service in the US Army. Nancy was sent to the airport on behalf of her father to welcome Elvis when his plane landed. On the special, Nancy and her father danced and sang a duet, "You Make Me Feel So Young/Old". That same year she began a five-year marriage to Tommy Sands.

Sinatra was signed to her father's label, Reprise Records, in 1961. Her first single, "Cuff Links and a Tie Clip", went unnoticed. However, subsequent singles charted in Europe and Japan. Without a hit in the US by 1965, she was on the verge of being dropped. Her singing career received a boost with the help of songwriter/producer/arranger Lee Hazlewood, who had been making records for ten years, notably with Duane Eddy. Hazlewood became Sinatra's inspiration. He had her sing in a lower key and crafted pop songs for her. Bolstered by an image overhaul — including bleached-blonde hair, frosted lips, heavy eye make-up and Carnaby Street fashions — Sinatra made her mark on the American (and British) music scene in early 1966 with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", its title inspired by a line in Robert Aldrich's 1963 western comedy 4 for Texas starring her father and Dean Martin. One of her many hits written by Hazlewood, it received three Grammy Award nominations, including two for Sinatra and one for arranger Billy Strange. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The camppromo clip featured a big-haired Sinatra and six young women in loose sweaters, go-go boots and hot pants. The song has been covered by artists such as Geri Halliwell, Culture Club, Megadeth, Jessica Simpson, Lil' Kim, Little Birdy, Billy Ray Cyrus, Faster Pussycat, KMFDM,Symarip, Operation Ivy and the Del Rubio Triplets and The Supremes.

A run of chart singles followed, including the two 1966 Top 10 hits "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?" (#7) and "Sugar Town" (#5). "Sugar Town" became her second million seller.The ballad "Somethin' Stupid" — a duet with her father — hit #1 in the US and the UK in April 1967 and spent nine weeks at the top of Billboard's easy listening chart. It earned aGrammy Award nomination for Record of the Year and remains the only father-daughter duet to hit No.1 in the US It became Sinatra's third million-selling disc.mOther 45s showing her forthright delivery include "Friday’s Child" (#36, 1966), and the 1967 hits "Love Eyes" (#15) and "Lightning’s Girl" (#24). She rounded out 1967 with the raunchy but low-charting "Tony Rome" (#83) — the title track from the detective film Tony Rome starring her father — while her first solo single in 1968 was the more wistful "100 Years" (#69).

In 1967 she recorded the theme song for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In the liner notes of the CD reissue of her 1966 album, Nancy In London, Sinatra states that she was "scared to death" of recording the song, and asked the songwriters: "Are you sure you don't want Shirley Bassey?" There are two versions of the Bond theme. The first is the lushly orchestrated track featured during the opening and closing credits of the film. The second – and more guitar-heavy — version appeared on the double A-sided single with "Jackson", though the Bond theme stalled at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100.

She also made appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Virginian and starred in television specials. These include the Emmy-nominated 1966 Frank Sinatra special A Man and His Music - Part II, and the 1967 NBC Emmy Award nominated for 'Special Classification of Individual Achievements' by choreographer David Winters TV special Movin' With Nancy, in which she appeared with Lee Hazlewood, her father and his Rat Pack pals Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., with a cameo appearance by her brother Frank Sinatra, Jr. and guest star appearance by West Side Story dancer David Winters. At one point in the video, Sinatra shared a kiss with Sammy Davis, Jr. She has stated "The kiss [was] one of the first interracial kisses seen on television and it caused some controversy then, and now. [But] contrary to some inaccurate online reports, the kiss was unplanned and spontaneous."The special also features Winters' choreography, dancing and dancers. As there was no Emmy Award category for Choreography – the shows Emmy Nomination was placed in the 'Special Classification of Individual Achievements' category. Possibly due to this specials success and its choreography a new category for 'Outstanding Choreography' was created by the Emmys the next year.Movin' With Nancywas sponsored by Royal Crown Co.

1970's and 1980's

Sinatra remained with Reprise until 1970. In 1971, she signed with RCA, resulting in three albums: Nancy & Lee – Again (1971), Woman (1972), and a compilation of some of her Reprise recordings under the title This Is Nancy Sinatra (1973). That year she released a non-LP single, "Sugar Me" b/w "Ain't No Sunshine". The former was written by Lynsey De Paul/Barry Blue and, with other covers of works by early-70s popular songwriters, resurfaced on the 1998 album How Does It Feel.

In the autumn of 1971 Sinatra and Hazlewood’s duet "Did You Ever?" reached number two in the UK singles chart. In 1972 they performed for a Swedish documentary, Nancy & Lee In Las Vegas, which chronicled their Vegas concerts at the Riviera Hotel and featured solo numbers and duets from concerts, behind-the-scenes footage, and scenes of Sinatra's late husband, Hugh Lambert, and her mother. The film did not appear until 1975.

By 1975 she was releasing singles on Private Stock, which are the most sought-after by collectors. Among those released were "Kinky Love", "Annabell of Mobile", "It's for My Dad," and "Indian Summer" (with Hazlewood). "Kinky Love" was banned by some radio stations in the 1970s for "suggestive" lyrics. It saw the light of day on CD in 1998 on Sheet Music: A Collection of Her Favorite Love Songs. Pale Saints covered the song in 1991.

By the mid-1970s, she slowed her musical activity and ceased acting to concentrate on being a wife and mother. She returned to the studio in 1981 to record a country album with Mel Tillis called Mel & Nancy. Two of their songs made the Billboard Country Singles Chart: "Texas Cowboy Night" (#23) and "Play Me or Trade Me" (#43).

In 1985, she wrote the book Frank Sinatra, My Father.

1990's - Present

At 54 Sinatra posed for Playboy in the May 1995 issue and made appearances on TV shows to promote her album One More Time. The magazine appearance caused some controversy. On the talk show circuit, she said her father was proud of the photos. Those close to the Sinatras claimed that family members were upset with the nude photo spread. Sinatra told Jay Leno on a 1995 Tonight Show that her daughters gave their approval, but her mother said she should ask her father before committing to the project. Sinatra claims that when she told her father what Playboy would be paying her, he said, "Double it.

That year, Sundazed Records began reissuing Sinatra's Reprise albums with remastered sound, new liner notes and photos, and bonus tracks. She also updated her biography on her dad and published Frank Sinatra: An American Legend.

In 2003 she reunited with Hazlewood once more for the album Nancy & Lee 3. It was released only in Australia.

Taking her father's advice from when she began her recording career ("Own your own masters"), she owns or holds an interest in most of her material, including videos.

In 2004 she collaborated with former Los Angeles neighbour Morrissey to record a version of his song "Let Me Kiss You", which was featured on her autumn release Nancy Sinatra. The single — released the same day as Morrissey’s version — charted at #46 in the UK, providing Sinatra with her first hit for over 30 years. The follow-up single, "Burnin' Down the Spark", failed to chart. The album, originally titled To Nancy, with Love, featured rock performers such as Calexico, Sonic Youth, U2, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Steven Van Zandt, Jon Spencer, and Pete Yorn, who all cited Sinatra as an influence. Each artist crafted a song for Sinatra to sing on the album.

Two years later EMI released The Essential Nancy Sinatra – a UK-only greatest-hits compilation featuring the previously unreleased track, "Machine Gun Kelly". The collection was picked by Sinatra and spans her 40-year career. The record was Sinatra's first to make the UK album charts (#73) in 30 years.

Had 24 Billboard hits. Her most famous songs are 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin',' 'How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?' 'You Only Live Twice,' 'Sugar Town,' 'Lightning's Girl,' 'Some Velvet Morning,' 'Lady Bird,' 'Somethin' Stupid,' 'Love Eyes,' 'Did You Ever?' and 'The Highway Song,' as well as cult songs 'Bang Bang,' 'Kinky Love,' 'Hook and Ladder' and 'Flowers in the Rain.' Sinatra also has two Adult Contemporary chart favorites, 'Happy,' and the hard-to-find 'How Are Things in California?

Released a disco single in 1976 called Kinky Love, on Private Stock. The song's suggestive lyrics made the song unplayable to radio waves, and was only heard every so often in underground of the late 70's. It first gained resurrection when in the early 1990's, The Pail Saints covered the song for an album, but really rose attention when Nancy herself included on a 1998 compilation of rare and unreleased tracks called "Sheet Music." Today, the song is widely recognized as a cult hit of Sinatra's (being the talk of different places on the Internet), and original copies of the single [Private Stock 075] is a sought-after collectors item; rarely ever seen at all. Some copies sell for over $1,000 dollars.

Her first hit record, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", became popular partly due to the prominent bass guitar riff played throughout the song. That riff was played by Chuck Berghofer, with Carol Kaye on rhythm guitar. Both are of the legendary Wrecking Crew.

Performed "Somethin' Stupid" with brother Frank Sinatra Jr. on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" (1967). Nancy and father Frank Sinatrahad just had a number 1 hit with the song in the US and the UK, the only father-daughter duet ever to top the charts. [April 30, 1967]

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

First American to perform the opening credits song to a "James Bond" film (You Only Live Twice (1967)).

I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra, My dad was the ultimate Frankie fan, "Ol' Blue Eye's" could be heard crooning throughout our house.The source of the music would come from a 8 track, if I remember correctly in work area, tool shop if you will, our garage. As a youngster myself i was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I was so not into his type of music, I was more an American Bandstand kinda kid. I think My dad wanted to be like Frank, but I'm pretty sure he was more Dino, Dean Martin. One Day when I was in my room, it was rather late at night i should have been asleep but my parents had friends over, back in the day that's what parents did, they had cocktail parties...well, i hear my dad singing, this song that caught my attention, i jumped up from bed and peeked out my door into the kitchen and at the sink my mom was washing a few glasses, my dad leaned into her and started singing, Frank & Nancy's SOMETHING STUPID to my mom, she laughed at him, then as he persisted, she started singing along with him. To see my parents at that moment as people in love was a huge deal for me. and to this day it's one of my favorite moments from my child hood, with a soundtrack from Frank & Nancy Sinatra..So Thank you for that.

As I got older I realized I was more of Nancy man, well, as i laugh out loud, i meant that in terms of Nancy Sinatra over her fathers music, but yeah the other one too. Who can't Remember dancing the pony to THESE BOOTS WHERE MADE FOR WALKING? As I grew older and in my teens, I would watch all the beach films, of course they where in reruns, but to me it was all so new. Musically, I think that some pass her off as bubble gum pop music, and maybe so in the beginning of her career, and what's wrong with that, i like Bubble Gum! I remember the day when I was at a friends house and we where getting ready to go out I think I was like 19 or 20, and this haunting, fable of a song came on the the cassette deck...."SOME VELVET MORNING WHEN I'M STRAIGHT, I'M GONNA OPEN YOU YOUR GATE..." I stopped in my tracks and was like who is this? NANCY SINATRA and LEE HAZLEWOOD. I remember sitting in front of my stereo in my bedroom, wearing huge headphones listening over and over to this song trying to learn ever word by heart until my mom barges in my room and asks, "why are you listening to that old music"? I remember saying, but it's from your generation, and she just said, "but still."

To this day the music they recorded together is some, if not the best records ever produced. Far from Nancy's earlier work, this music was way ahead of the times and listening to it today is magic. It's fairy tales and fables put to music.

Nancy Sinatra to me Is ICON status, musically, in film, and beauty. As a makeup artist I can't stress how many times she has been my influence and inspirations. The double layer eye lashes, the back combed hair prayed bouffant bump, Pale lips, and heavy smokey eyes. She was an original and i think ahead of her time. If you ask me they stole her look for BARBARELLA....

Sometime when I am working I will refer to a look of a hairstyle as a Nancy Sinatra, or just simple BOOTS! pure 60's! Needless to say that the 1960's and early 70's have been a huge makeup influence for me and Nancy as been there at the top of my list. I would love to one day work with her, she's still a beautiful woman. Recently I have been able to let her now that I adore her, via Twitter, she's amazingly gracious with her fans.cheers, Mykie!

ABOUT ME

Hey Guys & Gals, My names Myke Spezzano, I am a native Califonrian with 20 Plus years in the business of making pretty. I have worked In fashion, Print, Commercials and film & Television. I started this blog to share with anyone interested, my ideas, passions, influences and the things that inspire me to do what I do. So i am thinking that this will be a fun place. Feel free to contribute and leave me comments. i always reply back pretty quickly too.
Much Peace and Kindness.
Be pretty where it counts!
xoxox myke